taken 8 years ago, near to Biddulph, Staffordshire, Great Britain

In 2008 the Sainsbury's supermarket chain announced that they were buying the Somerfield shop on the High Street, and opening a supermarket of their own. They then produced some ambitious plans which would involve the demolition of the existing store, the arcade of shops (with flats above) attached to it, an ironmongers, some residential properties and a coach depot on Wharf Road plus several occupied houses and the Labour Club on Craigside. This would then give them plenty of space to build a new store and shopping mall, and include a car-park and bus station behind. After many public consultations and planning meetings the plans were approved.
With the relocation of the last shop in the arcade, work began in December 2009 by demolishing all the buildings between Craigside and the by-pass. January 2010 saw the demolition of the shops on the High Street. It has been quite a tricky job for them here because the bus-stop remained in-situ, and there was only about a 1 foot (30 cm) gap between the old Somerfield store and the Royal Oak public house - which is remaining.
The demolition was finished on Friday 22nd January 2009, barring some tidying and removal of rubble. The builders started work on the same day, erecting posts to attach the safety hoardings.
Towards the end of May 2010, after what seemed endless groundwork, the structure started to appear above the hoardings; and by the middle of June it was possible to see what the final shape would be.
With an opening date of the 3rd of November advertised, things started to get a bit manic towards the beginning of October with work being carried out 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.